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Y13 January 2026 Assessments Revision Guidance

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Y13 January 2026 Assessments Revision Guidance

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A-Z by Subject Revision for the January 2026 Y13 Assessments

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Y13 JANUARY 2026 ASSESSMENTS - REVISION GUIDANCE A TO Z BY SUBJECT

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SHSF - General A Level Revision Guidance

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SHSF - General A Level Revision Guidance

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Exam Protocols and JCQ Regulations and Guidance

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Exam Protocols and JCQ Regulations and Guidance

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Information regarding exam protocols (see Exam Information Booklet) as well as information from the regulatory body JCQ (Joint Council for Qualifications) can be found on the the school website.

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Making the grade: A* students share their revision tips and secrets

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Making the grade: A* students share their revision tips and secrets

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Do you know how to revise? It might sound like a silly question, but some killer revision tips could take your revision, and consequently your exam prospects, from whatever to wow.

This is what students on our sister site The Student Room (TSR), who received at least one A* in their A-level exams, attributed their success to. And no, none of them include leaving things to the last minute...

Alternatively, skip down to our top A-level revision tips including answers to common study questions.

How to revise: revision tips from A* students

Read the examiners' reports

Rather than try to guess what those marking your paper are looking for, it can pay off to do a little digging. Believe it or not, the answer is out there...

My number one gold-star advice (and I genuinely believe this is the only reason I got my A* in English language) is this: read the examiners' reports. Then read them again.

What baffles me is that, year upon year, the exam boards make public a document that is, wait for it, written by the people who are going to mark your papers. And in it, they tell you what they like to read. They also give you examples of what not to do.

Exam-technique wise, this is the most useful and important resource you have. Utilise it. Be all fancy and print it off and highlight key points and make spider diagrams. Stick it on your fridge. Memorise it, then eat the paper - whatever! Just make sure, if you're doing an essay subject, you walk into that exam knowing that, for the past five years in a row, examiners have given high marks to pupils who offer criticisms to viewpoints, or who relate to personal research. Thompsonic7 | The Student Room Member

Want more advice? This video has some general advice from A-level examiners.

Check past papers

This is a great way to get accustomed to the type of questions you'll face in an exam, as well as the language the questions will be told in - something like this might throw you off if you're encountering it for the first time on exam day.

Practice is key, so getting your hands on past paper questions and answers is very important. You're able to make connections between different areas of the syllabus. This is very important when it comes to A / A* questions.

So put down those revision cards and mind-maps once you've learned them. There's no point going over something a million times; you need to be able to apply it. At least two weeks before your exams, start concentrating on past papers. Do each one at least twice. With each one, trawl through the mark scheme and ensure you understand everything there. This gives you a better idea of how to think through an exam question.

I rarely just know the answer. In the harder questions, I have to think about it and work it out. That's what you need to be able to do to get the high grades. Dmccririck | The Student Room Member

Using past papers? This video has some tips.

Be prepared

It might seem tedious, but it's best to have all your bases covered than spend the exam kicking yourself that you didn't revise that one area you glossed over.

If you're unsure what will come up in an exam, get a copy of the syllabus off the internet and literally tick off every single thing on the list. Britchick | The Student Room Member

Make it more manageable

Starting to revise can feel overwhelming, especially if an exam covers two years of work. Breaking things down can be a great psychological win and make things slightly more achievable.

Break down your subject into ordered sections. Breaking down the exam into lots of little sections makes revision less daunting, and you'll know exactly where you stand in terms of how much you've done.

For my exams, I broke down a module into 20 sections or topics. It meant it didn't seem like much of a chore to start the next one, as they didn't last long. Then, before I knew it, I'd whizzed through the module without it being much work. Britchick | The Student Room Member

Break it down: this video explains how breaking information down into smaller pieces makes it easier to remember.

Don't be tempted to cram

Don't leave things to the last minute, thinking that it will stick in your head if you do (it won't).

Get into the habit of doing a little nightly or weekly throughout the year. By the time you get to revision season, everything will (hopefully) feel more manageable. This will also leave you more time to practise and test what you really know.

Create a plan

Having everything written down in front of you will ensure nothing gets forgotten and give you a basis to work from. This can make a real difference when you have multiple subjects to study for.

The best thing my mum ever did for me was make me set up a revision timetable. I wrote out every topic within every subject I needed to revise, then estimated how many sessions of 50 minutes I would need to revise that topic.

I then put this into a timetable so when it came down to revising I wouldn't spend ages just flicking through any book finding something to revise, but would know exactly what area I was to cover in that time period. Strawberryjellybaby | The Student Room Member

Getting organised? This video has more tips on making a revision timetable.

Common A-level revision questions: FAQs

When should you start revising?
This will depend on how many exams you have, when they are and how prepared you are already. Most students will begin just before or during the Easter holidays, but focus on what your needs are, and plan accordingly.

Mocks are a great way to kick off your revision, whether these take place before or after Christmas. Here you can start getting your notes together, figure out a study plan and discover what techniques work best for you. This can save time when preparing for the real thing, later.

When you get your mock results back, this will tell you how you're doing, what material has stuck and what you need to work on. Check out our tips on what to do if your mocks go badly.

From there, you can decide when to begin. This might begin with simply making notes or highlighting key information, and ramp up slowly to actually memorising this and doing past papers. Again, things will vary from student to student; don't try to get too bogged down by what others are doing.

Your teachers can also give you some guidance on when to begin and what you should be doing, as they will know you best.
How many hours should you revise per day?
Again, this will depend on how much you need to revise, how you're doing so far and how you best revise.

You don't want to be in a situation where you haven't got enough time to cover everything you need to, so start early if you have to, to get the job done. Cramming, overly long revision sessions and not covering material in enough detail won't do you any good.

Stick to short revision sessions, take breaks, and switch up what and how you study to keep things interesting. A four-hour study session without breaks may look impressive; but if you're not remembering what you need to, how effective is it really? The human brain can only go so long without being distracted, so don't push yourself beyond your limits.

If you need to meet a certain number of study hours in a single day, experiment with revising at different times to avoid long, unproductive sessions. This might mean doing a little work before school, at lunchtime or after school (before and after dinner).

This might not sound fun, but exam season is where you'll need to learn to prioritise commitments in your life (temporarily) for a greater goal - a worthy life lesson. So things like extracurricular clubs, sports, part-time jobs, browsing Instagram, playing video games and seeing friends might need to be put on the shelf (if possible) for now. That doesn't mean you should be working 24/7 and not blow off steam here and there; but be smart with your time and earn your rewards.

Time to revise? This video covers how much time to spend studying.

What are the best revision techniques to study effectively?
Studying in shorter sessions with breaks, and revising different subjects in different ways, often works best for most. This will keep your brain stimulated, whereas doing the same thing for too long will likely make you switch off.

Revision doesn't mean sitting in your room alone staring at a book, either. Everyone is different and there are lots of ways to approach studying, so find the method that works best for you - use your mocks to help you decide what works for you:

Alone vs with others: do you need a disciplined friend to keep you motivated and stop you reaching for your phone? Or will you simply be distracted by their presence?

At home or elsewhere: not everyone has an area at home to revise comfortably for long periods. Whether it be Netflix, games or dad popping in to grab your laundry, many distractions at home can stop you getting into the groove.

Study rooms at school, the library or a local café can be alternative study spots. Make sure you have sufficient light so you're not straining your eyes, a sturdy chair that won't leave you hunched over, and enough space for all your books, notes and equipment (plus a study snack).

With music or in silence: dead silence can drive some people doolally, but if you're revising a particularly tricky subject, you might need to focus. Others need some sort of background noise; this could be music (from hard rock to block out noise to indie folk to chill out to), the radio or television, or even just the happenings of their local café.

Reading vs taking notes vs explaining it out loud etc: for most, reading is not enough and you'll need to shake things up, especially when hopping from one subject to another.

Making notes might take a while, but taking the time to write down (not typing) key information can help it stick. Another question to ask yourself is how much you should write down. This could start of as extensive notes, slowly narrowing down to flashcards or brief 'crib notes' with acronyms, key names and formulas as exams draw near.

But how do you know it's all sticking? Try making notes without looking at your books, completing past papers, and even explaining key concepts to others- in fact, this last one is a great tip to check that what you're learning makes sense to you.

Need more revision tips? These ones are scientifically proven.

Revision help, hacks and tips: survive exam season with our full advice section

And if you're revising for a Btec,take a look at our top tips from current and former Btec students.

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Making the grade: A* students share their revision tips and secrets

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A* students share their top tips for how to revise for A-levels, plus we share advice on when to start and more.

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Health Check, BBC World Service

It's the time of year where students are poring over their books, trying to ensure they are prepared for their exams.

Revision charts, highlighter pens and sticky notes around the room are some of the methods people use to ensure information stays in their mind.

But now psychologists in the US warn many favourite revision techniques will not lead to exam success.

Universities, schools and colleges offer students a variety of ways to help them remember the content of their courses and get good grades.

These include re-reading notes, summarising them and highlighting the important points.

Others involve testing knowledge and using mnemonics - ways of helping recall facts and lists, or creating visual representations of the knowledge.

But teachers do not know enough about how memory works and therefore which techniques are most effective, according to Prof John Dunlovsky, of Kent State University.

Help - or hindrance?

He and his colleagues reviewed 1,000 scientific studies looking at 10 of the most popular revision strategies.

They found that eight out of 10 did not work, or even hindered learning.

For example, many students love to take a highlighter to their notes.

But Prof Dunlovsky's research - published in Psychological Science in the Public Interest, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science - found that picking out individual phrases in florescent yellow, green or pink can hinder revision.

"When students are using a highlighter they often focus on one concept at a time and are less likely to integrate the information they're reading into a larger whole," he says.

"That could undermine their comprehension of that material."

But he's not suggesting that highlighters should be abandoned as he recognises they are "safety blankets" for many students.

Plan ahead

Teachers regularly suggest reading through notes and essays from lessons and making summaries.

But Prof Dunlovsky says: "To our surprise it turns out that writing summaries doesn't help at all.

"Students who go back and re-read learn as much as students who write a summary as they are reading."

Some revision guides advise using memory aids, or mnemonics.

Prof Dunlovsky says they can work well for remembering specifics, like Richard of York gave battle in vain, which allows people to remember the colours of the rainbow,

But he warns they are not applicable to other kinds of material. "They won't help you learn long passages or mathematics or physics."

Only two of the 10 techniques examined turned out to be really effective - testing yourself and spreading out your revision over time.

"Students who can test themselves or try to retrieve material from their memory are going to learn that material better in the long run", says Prof Dunlovsky.

"Start by reading the text book then make flash cards of the critical concepts and test yourself.

"A century of research has shown that repeated testing works."

This is because the student is more engaged and it is harder for the mind to wander.

He adds: "Testing itself when you get the correct answers appears to produce a more elaborative memory trace connected with your prior knowledge, so you're building on what you know".

Starting late

However the best strategy is to plan ahead and not do all your revision on one subject in a block before moving on to the next - a technique called "distributed practice".

Prof Dunlovsky says it is the "most powerful" of all the strategies.

"In any other context, students use this technique. If you were doing a dance recital you wouldn't start practising an hour before, yet students like to cram for an exam."

Some students will always start late on their revision.

But Prof Dunlovsky says: "Students who cram may pass the exam but they don't retain the material.

"When they're going to be taking advanced classes in the subject, they are going to build on the knowledge they're developing, so I highly recommend distributed practice.

"A good dose of cramming that follows up on lots of distributive practice is the best way to go."

So do different techniques work for different individuals? Prof Dunlovsky says "no" - the top techniques work for everyone.

And experts think this paper could help teachers and lecturers help their students.

Dr Andrew Butler, of the department of psychology and neuroscience at Duke University in the US, says: "This paper is hugely important for the field and educational practice - it's about getting best practices into hands of educators."

But it is likely that students will still rely on what works for them, no matter what the science says.

Lea Corinth, who is studying international business and Spanish at the University of Westminster uses the re-reading technique - rated by the researchers as being of little use.

But she says: "I read over everything until I memorise it. It doesn't take too long.

"I make summary notes of everything important, put it in a folder and memorise everything."

But Abdul Harmetz, who is studying history at the same university, says: "I'm a crammer - I started revising yesterday and stayed up all night for my exam today, using old school techniques like copying everything out over and over again.

"The exam went all right actually."

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.

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Revision techniques - the good, the OK and the useless

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Health Check, BBC World Service It's the time of year where students are poring over their books, trying to ensure they are prepared for their exams. Revision charts, highlighter pens and sticky notes around the room are some of the methods people use to ensure information stays in their mind.

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Exam Time provides advice and guidance on how best to prepare for exams

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Plan out your revision by making a revision timetable. That way, you know what to study and when. This will also allow you to split up your study into chunks, making it seem much more achievable. Be realistic when creating this timetable, to not cram too much revision into one day.

Give yourself plenty of time

The earlier you can start your revision, the better. You'll be more prepared heading into your assessments and can spend more time studying the topics you find difficult.

If you're unsure when to start revising for A-levels, we spoke to some sixth form students to ask when they begin revising and how to get going.

Understand the assessment objectives

Make sure you understand how you'll be assessed and what questions might come up. This should dictate both what and how you study. The more knowledge you have of the assessment before it happens, the better prepared you'll be when the time comes.

Try different learning methods

Switch up how you learn by engaging some different senses. If you typically learn best by reading and writing, try also verbalising your revision out loud or teaching it to a friend. Adding variety can help to commit ideas more firmly to memory.

Use different learning materials

Don't just stick with learning a topic through a textbook. The Internet is your oyster. Watching documentaries or videos on the topics you're trying to learn can be a new and engaging way to revise. Seek out articles, podcasts and books on the topic too. It's also worth asking your teachers for additional learning material.

Past papers are a great indicator of what might come up in your assessment. Time yourself while doing them to see how you perform under test conditions. This way, when it's time to be tested, you'll feel more prepared.

Ask your teachers and tutors for past papers. You can also usually find past papers online.

To revise effectively, you'll need to split up your study with breaks. It's not wise to study for hours on end without stepping away from your work. Taking breaks allows your brain to refresh and reset. This is particularly useful if you're finding a certain topic challenging.

Incorporate exercise into these breaks too, as moving your body will give you more energy to continue learning.

Avoid having your phone with you while you study. The allure of social media, and other apps, can be too distracting. Try leaving your phone in another room so you don't get tempted to reach for it. If you need it nearby, download the Forest app which will motivate you to stay focused and not use your phone.

You'll struggle to study effectively without sufficient rest. You'll find it difficult to concentrate on your work and your motivation to study can fade. Lack of sleep also impairs memory, making it hard to recall important ideas when it matters. Prioritise getting between 7 to 9 hours each night.

Be mindful of what you eat

What you put into your body will affect the quality of what you put out. Fueling your brain and body with a balanced, nutritious diet will only benefit the effectiveness of your revision. Foods that'll ensure your brain is firing include fruit, nuts, seeds, wholegrains and vegetables. Don't forget to supplement this with plenty of water.
Header image: Photo by fotografierende on Unsplash

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wondering how to revise for a-levels? from revision timetables to finding a balance of work and rest

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How to revise for A-levels | A-level revision

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Plan out your revision by making a revision timetable. That way, you know what to study and when. This will also allow you to split up your study into chunks, making it seem much more achievable. Be realistic when creating this timetable, to not cram too much revision into one day.

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Birmingham City University Revision Guide

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Birmingham City University Revision Guide

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Looking for revision help for A Levels? We’ve got a free revision guide and a load of helpful articles containing expert tips on how to revise for exams.

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Mind Maps for A-levels

If you are sitting your A-levels this year, you may be feeling a range of emotions; stress, anxiety, tiredness, anxiety and frustration. Integrating A-level Mind Maps into your routine will help you learn in a more effective and efficient way, build better focus and improve your knowledge retention.

Not only this, if you develop a good set of study skills using mind maps now, you can rely on these fundamental skills no matter what you are learning in the future. Ask any student who has taken A-level exams and they will tell you that the key to successful exam results is building a good set of study skills.

Improve you're a-level revision using our free online mind mapping tool. Find out how these study tools can help you below.

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Mind Maps for A-levels| Online Study Tool | ExamTime

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If you are sitting your A-levels this year, you may be feeling a range of emotions; stress, anxiety, tiredness, anxiety and frustration. Integrating A-level Mind Maps into your routine will help you learn in a more effective and efficient way, build better focus and improve your knowledge retention.

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6 Tips To Stay Motivated During A-Level Revision

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Exams are a stressful period for any student. Here are 6 tips to stay motivated in this challenging exam period and achieve your goals

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Guidance from Oxford University on how best to manage your time and academic good practice

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Advice on academic good practice including avoiding plagiarism, managing your time, reading, note taking, referencing and revision. You can also consult your subject handbook and course tutor / graduate supervisor for advice specific for your discipline.